Lets get this show on the road. I am hoping to start the 1st chapter on Monday. That is contingent on everyone being able to complete their characters by Sunday night.
If you see a problem due to the holiday or personal reasons let me know, not a big deal, just trying to gauge everyone's availablity.

Item two, house rules. Skills will play a bigger part in my game. I haven't finished flushing out all of my rules, but just an idea of what are a few things that are different:

Crafting: Crafting times will be shortened, but the cost to craft will be at least 75% of the retail gp value of the item.

Skill focus feat: If you take skill focus you gain two additional powers from the feat:
Example: Skill focus (Acrobatics)
1) Extraordinary skill: Once per day your level of expertise in your chosen skill allows you to perform one act of "Extraordinary skill". You gain an additional +5 circumstance bonus to your roll when you choose to use your skill focus power.
2) When you use Acrobatics to tumble past opponents, you gain +2 to your armor class vs. attacks of opportunity.

Every skill focus feat will have its own power but the Extraordinary skill is the same for any skill you pick to focus on.

Hey, reporting in! Thanks for the invite, I really look forward to seeing how this pans out. As I mentioned this will be the first PBP I've played in, so I'll need some guidance and such.

I understand that it's typical to make an 'alt' as is were for RPing purposes? If some-one could outline the typical expectations there-in, that would be awesome(or just point me to an example I can look over).

I think I have everything for Nora done, including an equipment list which I'll post as soon as I've got formatting and such figured out.

Click on the My Account in the gray bar near the top of the page. In the left hand column there's a Messageboard Aliases box. Put your character name for the Avatar Name, select an avatar image that fits your character, and hit Submit Changes. There, it's created. When you start a post you're have a Post As dropdown in the lower left corner, select the character for the game when doing so. It's also common to put your character sheet in the Aliases' profile for easy access.

Also if you click on my picture, click on alias', and then click on Malthir you will see a common character breakdown that is used on a PBP. Sections for relevant character attributes, attacks, etc. One we start pulling the characters together over the next few days I will provide some feedback on those types of things as well.

Woohoo! I will definitely finish my character ASAP. I still have to choose a feat and a non-campaign trait, so I'm going to do a quickie analysis of our team.

Two Wis-based divine casters, Nim and Nora.

Two Int-based arcane casters, Corbrius Jank and Tragershen.

Two melee-oriented casters, Corbrius and Nim.

Two ranged-oriented Desna-worshippers, Nora and Anton Green.

Two wilderness survivalists, Nim and Anton.

Two non-humans, Tragershen and Anton.

One dedicated healer and diplomat, Nora.

One dedicated arcanist and know-it-all, Tragershen.

One dedicated sneak, observer and trap-disabler, Anton.

Trained-only skills that less than two have as class skills: one Disable Device (Anton), one Knowledge/Engineering (Tragershen), one Knowledge/Local (Tragershen), no Sleight of Hand, and one Use Magic Device (Corbrius).

Okay, so with Luck I have done this all right, I think she should be ready for inspection. A quick note that wearing the backpack she has jammed with stuff pushes her well into heavy encumbrance territory which is 'assumed' in her AC stats, her AC will be 1 higher in situations she isn't wearing said equipment, the same obviously applies for movement as well.

I know he is not complete yet, but you look like you have over 20 ability points.

Yeah, big time typo on the charisma there. Corrected it now. Thanks!

Also, are you comfortable with some pre-game metagaming? Coordinating skills and spells and such between players? I just wanted to make sure it was okay before I posted anything along those lines.

Since you guys have time together on the ship before you get to where you are going I am fine with some metagaming with spells although I am not big on coordinating skills since these would have been gained before you got together.

Okay, so with Luck I have done this all right, I think she should be ready for inspection. A quick note that wearing the backpack she has jammed with stuff pushes her well into heavy encumbrance territory which is 'assumed' in her AC stats, her AC will be 1 higher in situations she isn't wearing said equipment, the same obviously applies for movement as well.

Otherwise I think I'm good.

My understanding is that your speed would be 30 ft. with or without the backpack.

CRB p. 169 wrote:

If your character is wearing armor, use the worse figure (from armor or from load) for each category. Do not stack the penalties.

The "for each category" appears to be referring one paragraph up to "affects his maximum Dexterity bonus to AC, carries a check penalty... reduces the character's speed, and affects how fast the character can run."

Making progress myself, will have an alias soon. For my feat, I'm leaning toward Mounted Combat; but out of curiosity, what's the power for Skill Focus (Perception)?

Edit: oops, wrong book.
Edit edit: unless the Travel domain has been errata'd to work like the Barbarian's fast movement?

Mounts will not be as effective in this AP i'm afraid. Since all of the terrain will be difficult and there will be quite a few ruins a small mount could still be used but there could be some climbing and such. Just something to keep in mind.

As far as skill focus Perception, hope you like it:

Skill Focus (Perception)
Benefit: You get a +3 bonus on all checks involving the chosen skill. If you have 10 or more ranks in that skill, this bonus increases to +6.

Special: Extraordinary skill: Once per day your level of expertise in your chosen skill allows you to perform one act of "Extraordinary skill". You gain an additional +5 circumstance bonus to your roll when you choose to use your skill focus power. This is a free action.

Skill Power: Perceive the Enemy - Once per day you can take a move action to evaluate an enemies defenses by making a Perception check vs. their CMD to lower that enemies Armor Class vs. your attacks by 2 for the duration of the combat.

Mounts will not be as effective in this AP i'm afraid. Since all of the terrain will be difficult and there will be quite a few ruins a small mount could still be used but there could be some climbing and such. Just something to keep in mind.

As far as skill focus Perception, hope you like it:

Skill Focus (Perception)
Benefit: You get a +3 bonus on all checks involving the chosen skill. If you have 10 or more ranks in that skill, this bonus increases to +6.

Special: Extraordinary skill: Once per day your level of expertise in your chosen skill allows you to perform one act of "Extraordinary skill". You gain an additional +5 circumstance bonus to your roll when you choose to use your skill focus power. This is a free action.

Skill Power: Perceive the Enemy - Once per day you can take a move action to evaluate an enemies defenses by making a Perception check vs. their CMD to lower that enemies Armor Class vs. your attacks by 2 for the duration of the combat.

Taking a total of my equipment 'weight' puts me well into the 'Heavy Load' category right. I thought for some-one with a base speed of 40ft that this would reduce me to a speed of 20?

The base speed for a human is 30', dropping to 20' with medium or heavy armor or encumbrance. You add the +10' bonus to those figures, making it 40' or 30' respectively. That's assuming the +10' bonus doesn't drop off when you are at particular encumberance levels, like the monk or barbarian class abilities specifically call out.

I think Tragershen is ready to go. A couple of his mundane items (like his hammock) are from Adventurer's Armory and the details are available on d20pfsrd.com. Let me know if you want those dropped since that book wasn't listed in your original post on the recruitment thread.

Tragershen is starting at medium encumbrance, though after he goes through five days of rations he'll move up to light.

Taking a total of my equipment 'weight' puts me well into the 'Heavy Load' category right. I thought for some-one with a base speed of 40ft that this would reduce me to a speed of 20?

Naw, check the unnumbered table "Armor and Encumbrance for Other Base Speeds" on p. 170, and compare with table 7-5 "Encumbrance Effects" on 171.

Pretty much ready to go except for gear, description and avatar image.

Edit: I did in fact go with Skill Focus (Perception). It was a tough choice, but I'm trusting everyone else to excel in their roles, and spotting things early is half of mine. However, if not for the bonus powers, I might've gone with something else like Alertness or Eagle Eyes.

I must warn all of you though after starting to review everyone's character, this AP is filled with disease and poisons. Characters with low Fort saves may be in for a short life in case anyone wants to tweak their character to account for this.
Now that you have been warned, expect to make a lot of fort saves...

The base speed for a human is 30', dropping to 20' with medium or heavy armor or encumbrance. You add the +10' bonus to those figures, making it 40' or 30' respectively. That's assuming the +10' bonus doesn't drop off when you are at particular encumberance levels, like the monk or barbarian class abilities specifically call out.

I think Tragershen is ready to go. A couple of his mundane items (like his hammock) are from Adventurer's Armory and the details are available on d20pfsrd.com. Let me know if you want those dropped since that book wasn't listed in your original post on the recruitment thread.

Tragershen is starting at medium encumbrance, though after he goes through five days of rations he'll move up to light.

Okay, so with Luck I have done this all right, I think she should be ready for inspection. A quick note that wearing the backpack she has jammed with stuff pushes her well into heavy encumbrance territory which is 'assumed' in her AC stats, her AC will be 1 higher in situations she isn't wearing said equipment, the same obviously applies for movement as well.

Taking a total of my equipment 'weight' puts me well into the 'Heavy Load' category right. I thought for some-one with a base speed of 40ft that this would reduce me to a speed of 20?

Naw, check the unnumbered table "Armor and Encumbrance for Other Base Speeds" on p. 170, and compare with table 7-5 "Encumbrance Effects" on 171.

Pretty much ready to go except for gear, description and avatar image.

Edit: I did in fact go with Skill Focus (Perception). It was a tough choice, but I'm trusting everyone else to excel in their roles, and spotting things early is half of mine. However, if not for the bonus powers, I might've gone with something else like Alertness or Eagle Eyes.

Anton looks fine, my only comment is on his weapons:

Weapons: Blowgun, Dagger, Halberd, Halfling sling staff, Lucerne hammer, Sap, Trident
Not sure how realistic it is to be carrying all of those weapons on your tiny frame, but there is nothing in the rules saying you can't...if you can sell it in the RP, then I okay with it.

I will give people a day to make any last minute changes to their characters, but we might start early with the rist post on Sunday if everyone is good with this?

Corbrius looks fine, my mind is already swirling with some ideas about the "black blade"....

Not that she activates until 3rd level. Still, I've long thought that character backgrounds are where players should offer plot hooks to the DM instead of the other way around. That's why I left Asilande's origins and purpose deliberately uncertain. As long as you stick to the general guidelines for black blades (same alignment, typically helpful) I won't object to anything you do.

Corbrius looks fine, my mind is already swirling with some ideas about the "black blade"....

Not that she activates until 3rd level. Still, I've long thought that character backgrounds are where players should offer plot hooks to the DM instead of the other way around. That's why I left Asilande's origins and purpose deliberately uncertain. As long as you stick to the general guidelines for black blades (same alignment, typically helpful) I won't object to anything you do.

Taking a total of my equipment 'weight' puts me well into the 'Heavy Load' category right. I thought for some-one with a base speed of 40ft that this would reduce me to a speed of 20?

Naw, check the unnumbered table "Armor and Encumbrance for Other Base Speeds" on p. 170, and compare with table 7-5 "Encumbrance Effects" on 171.

Pretty much ready to go except for gear, description and avatar image.

Edit: I did in fact go with Skill Focus (Perception). It was a tough choice, but I'm trusting everyone else to excel in their roles, and spotting things early is half of mine. However, if not for the bonus powers, I might've gone with something else like Alertness or Eagle Eyes.

Anton looks fine, my only comment is on his weapons:

Weapons: Blowgun, Dagger, Halberd, Halfling sling staff, Lucerne hammer, Sap, Trident
Not sure how realistic it is to be carrying all of those weapons on your tiny frame, but there is nothing in the rules saying you can't...if you can sell it in the RP, then I okay with it.

I will give people a day to make any last minute changes to their characters, but we might start early with the rist post on Sunday if everyone is good with this?

No no, you're right, I'm still tweaking his gear. What's up there now is more like a wish list. ;) If I had it all, I was picturing leaving some on my warpony or in camp or whatever, and just taking what the situation called for. And Sunday is fine.

Thanks for the warning about the fort saves. With an elf as the base, there is only so much I can do to bump his saves. But I did change both of his traits, giving a +1 to fort saves and +2 vs. poisons. I picked immunity to giant wasp poison as a boon from Calistria. I'm focusing a little less on the explorer aspect of him and more on the robbed-left-for-dead-and-seeking-power-and-wealth-to-exact-revenge aspect of his background.

Nora and her good Heal skill should go a good way to mitigating such problems. At lower levels when there's little in the way of magical remedies available, you might be surprised just how helpful the Heal skill is with poisons and diseases.

OMG I finally have my gear done!! The only thing is that for Desna's holy text, Gods & Magic says that The Eight Scrolls fits in two scroll cases. And.. that's all. So, I took two scroll cases and eight pieces of parchment, and bumped it up to 4 gp. Sound about right?

Thanks for the warning about the fort saves. With an elf as the base, there is only so much I can do to bump his saves. But I did change both of his traits, giving a +1 to fort saves and +2 vs. poisons. I picked immunity to giant wasp poison as a boon from Calistria. I'm focusing a little less on the explorer aspect of him and more on the robbed-left-for-dead-and-seeking-power-and-wealth-to-exact-revenge aspect of his background.

And, just in case, I'll have a dwarven wizard backup... :)

BTW you don't need to buy any rations, they are supplied to you as part of the equipment you get. Just in case you want to use the money towards anything else.

Can everyone supply an e-mail address to me? I want to send you an invite to the party google site. You will then be able to upload things to the site. If you want to give me your IM as well it sometimes is helpful if you want to IM me a quick question and I am on-line quite a bit. Just spoiler it please.
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mine:

terok11@yahoo.com
my IM address is the same.

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Could use several volunteers for the party to track several things to help me out:

1. Treasure keeper. This person will track and upload a list of items and treasure splits for the party.
2. Experience keeper. This person will track and upload the current XP count for each party member.

BTW you don't need to buy any rations, they are supplied to you as part of the equipment you get. Just in case you want to use the money towards anything else.

In that case.. a bedroll! Um. Apparently I missed some things, forgot others existed, couldn't picture unslinging my backpack each time I wanted to use my compass or mapmaking kit, stuff like that. There has been some tweakage. If you need it, here's the text for the miner's lantern from the Pathfinder Society Field Guide.

Lantern, Miner's:

A smaller version of the bullseye lantern, a miner's lantern provides normal light in a 30-foot cone and increases the light level by one step in the area beyond that, out to a 60-foot cone (darkness becomes dim light and dim light becomes normal light). A miner's lantern does not increase the light level in normal light or bright light. It burns for 6 hours on 1 pint of oil. A miner's lantern comes with straps for attachment to a helmet or other piece of sturdy headgear, but it can also be carried in one hand.

Also, I've decided that I boarded in Magnimar. It seems like a good destination for Anton's last delivery, fitting his interview and background.

my email:

electrolemming-google@yahoo.com

Of course I'd be happy to track the treasure. If you saw my worksheet for Anton's gear.. let's just say that I'm obsessive enough to track it down to coppers and 1/8 lbs., and nice enough to not inflict it on you. ;) But if Corbrius would rather, that's fine too.

Thanks everyone, you are right, I was just reading the chart wrong. So we are aiming to 'start' on Monday? How does that go precisely? Also I understand there are some reasonably standard formatting conventions in these sorts of things?

If you hit the Show button under your posting window it'll explain some of the more common tags. Typical conventions are to put spoken dialog in bold and put your rolls in an ooc line. It also shows the proper format for dice rolls. As an example, with the tags showing:

Corb wipes the blood from his face and brings his blade back in line with his foe. [ b ]"I won't die that easily, you bastard."[ /b ] Drawing magical power into his weapon he lunges forward with a vicious slash.

Thanks everyone, you are right, I was just reading the chart wrong. So we are aiming to 'start' on Monday? How does that go precisely? Also I understand there are some reasonably standard formatting conventions in these sorts of things?

Sunday actually, since we've all been so prompt. Our DM Stephen will link to an in-character thread in the Play-by-Post forum. I don't know how it all works, but somehow the characters and DM and threads will all become connected. Then, you can click on a character to see his campaign, or else when looking at a campaign, view all the various threads (discussion, in-character and even recruitment).

There's one other common formatting: italics for thoughts. "Yes!" Corbrius thinks at his blade, though it doesn't respond. "You're awesome!"Critical confirmation: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23 for 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6 extra damage. Incidentally, I previewed this post so that I'd know the dice result and how to roleplay it. Corb's blade almost seems to draw him forward, lunging faster than the eye can follow... or at least faster than the villain's could. "Ha! Best that, fiend!" The enemy staggers with the telling blow. Apologies for RP'ing your char -- but I did double your damage. ;)

Yep, I kind of forget that this is still a new PBP so we need to set up some basic rules, so here goes:

1. I will roll initiative for everyone for the combat to get everything started.
2. When speaking please put it in bold text, doesn't need to be in quotations.
3. Use italics for special descriptive text or thoughts. Normal text for non-spoken actions is fine.
4. If you don't post in combat for 24 hours I will take your action for you.
5. There may be some times that I move things along like after a battle and healing where I just say that you guys heal up in order to move things along as well.
6. I may spoiler actions or questions to specific players, please don't read other players spoilers or the DM spoilers, it will just make it less fun for you and anyone else.

Will be sending out the e-mail invites to the shared site in a little while, expect the first post later today, I will link to it from here. And thanks to the group for giving Nora some pointers for me, keep the questions coming.

Actually I just shared the Serpents Skull site with everyone. Just go to it from the the link in this spoiler. You should be able to post stuff to the site, if someone could test it by adding a file and posting something in the journal.

You have made the site public (viewable by anyone) but we aren't able to make changes to the site... at least I can't anyhow. You probably need to change a setting, but I'm not sure that you want just anyone being able to make changes... perhaps you should restrict it to invited viewers only...

You have made the site public (viewable by anyone) but we aren't able to make changes to the site... at least I can't anyhow. You probably need to change a setting, but I'm not sure that you want just anyone being able to make changes... perhaps you should restrict it to invited viewers only...

I have an idea. The "Online RP" page on the Google site is superfluous... or is it? We've been together on that boat for who knows how long (I'd have to go back and look at backgrounds to see who boarded when). Jumping right into the action on Paizo is nice, but there's no reason why we can't also use the Google thread to RP earlier onboard conversations.

I have some things to do, but if there aren't any objections, then I'll go ahead and get that started later today, since I boarded at the beginning.

I have an idea. The "Online RP" page on the Google site is superfluous... or is it? We've been together on that boat for who knows how long (I'd have to go back and look at backgrounds to see who boarded when). Jumping right into the action on Paizo is nice, but there's no reason why we can't also use the Google thread to RP earlier onboard conversations.

I have some things to do, but if there aren't any objections, then I'll go ahead and get that started later today, since I boarded at the beginning.

I am fine with it, though I was thinking you would really start the RP meat and potatoes with each other now. I had thought to do some on the ship earlier, but I figured people would be more inclined to want to jump into the AP as soon as possible...